PART
1: WHY DID I INVESTIGATE THIS OUTFIT?
In
December 2002, I wrote an article exposing Gary Young, Young Living
Essential Oils, and the Young Life Research Clinic as dishonest and
misleading. Many people in the aromatherapy community asked me how I
developed an interest in this subject. This article explains my
interest and summarizes my findings about these enterprises. The
longer original article, which also contains footnotes to my
references, may be found at The
day Young Living broke my heart.
This shorter piece touches on the key points and also includes some
information not included in the first story.
One
spring day in 2002, I picked up what appeared to be a textbook lying
on an acquaintance’s workbench. A business card from a Young Living
Essential Oils independent distributor fluttered out of the book,
Essential Oils Desk Reference(EODR). I pocketed the card, and briefly
thumbed through the book. The EODR, as described by Lynda and Graham
Sorensen, appears to be mostly the work of D. Gary Young, although he
is not specifically credited as the book’s author.
I
politely returned the book, and expressed the opinion that this
particular book, with long lists of chemical components of essential
oils, would be more meaningful to the distributor if she first
learned at least basic biology and chemistry. After returning home, I
visited the dist
ributor’s
web site and from there linked to a transcript of D. Gary Young’s
tape “The Missing Link.”
Gary
Young created the tape “The Missing Link” for the alleged purpose
of educating the public about the healing powers of essential oils.
Young Living Essential Oils distributors purchase the tape
inexpensively for distribution to potential customers and new
recruits. Many distributor web sites post links to a transcript of
“The Missing Link.”
At
first I read only the beginning of the transcript, because it seemed
entirely ridiculous from the first few paragraphs. I examined the
entire transcript soon afterward, because I learned that the
distributor had convinced my acquaintance to travel thousands of
miles to Utah so that an ill family member could be treated at
Young’s clinic.
PART
2: YOUNG’S WRITINGS – THE MISSING SCREWPERHAPS?
I’d
like to point out some specific examples from “ The Missing Link”
that demonstrate that Young simply has no understanding of basic
science, let alone a subject as complex as essential oil chemistry. I
will examine a few quotes from that tape.
“One
of the primary agents in the blood that is responsible for the
delivery of the nutrients through the cell walls is called oxygen.”
Animals
do not have cell walls. The most basic high school biology courses
teach that only bacteria and plants have cell walls. Animals do have
cell membranes.
“You
see, in the human body we have a substance called blood, and that
blood has a very specific purpose. That purpose is to transport
nutrients to the cells, to nurture and feed the cells. . . . .When we
look at Essential Oils [sic], they have the same role, and play the
same function in the plant, as blood does in the human body.”
Essential
oils do not transport nutrients to the plant cells. Phloem transports
nutrients in plants, and xylem transports water. Examples of the
functions of essential oils in plants may include attracting
beneficial organisms such as pollinators, or repelling organisms that
might eat or infect the plant. Essential oils do not function as
blood. Only about 5% of all plant species even contain essential
oils. The other 95% would not be able to survive if plants required
essential oils for nutrient transport!
“Okay,
how many of you ladies have seen a leaf on one of your houseplants
torn or damaged? What comes out? It’s a liquid, isn’t it? It’s
called the resin by some, some call it the blood of the plant. Some
call it the life force of the plant but it’s the same thing, it
bleeds.”
Young
implies that essential oils run from the injured plant. However,
essential oils do not run out because they are contained within
special oil glands. The plant sequesters essential oils in these
special glands because concentrated essential oils can actually harm
plant cells. It would harm, not benefit, the injured plant if
essential oils were to run out. The liquid that runs out an injured
plant is sap, a mixture of fluids from the damaged xylem and phloem.
“.
. . . now we have a new VIRAL tuberculosis, do we not?”
Nonsense.
Tuberculosis has always been caused by, and still is caused by a
bacterium. Bacteria and viruses are completely different forms of
life. A bacterium cannot change or mutate into a virus.
“The
Missing Link” contains many more similar non-sensical statements.
But it is only one example of Young’s complete intellectual
unsoundness. For example, a selection from Young’s book
Aromatherapy: The Essential Beginning further documents his
ignorance. Young writes about a type of white blood cells called
neurophils. This is a very basic term familiar to anyone with basic
medical training. In the introduction to “The Missing Link”,
Young claims to have studied hematology, the science of blood. Yet
in that book, Young misspells the neutrophil incorrectly as
“nutrifile” not just once but five times!
PART
3 – GARY YOUNG’S ACTUAL BACKGROUND
Young’s
writings convinced me that the man had no business claiming to be an
authority on essential oils, and I decided to investigate his
background. He claims to have discovered the healing powers of
essential oils after he was allegedly left “paralyzed for life”
by a head injury. He claims to have discovered an essential oil cure
for this supposed paralysis, but has never provided documentation of
either the injury or his miraculous cure.
By
the early 1980’s Young had moved to Spokane, Washington. Although
he lacked any training in medicine, obstetrics, or midwifery, he
insisted on delivering his first wife’s baby underwater in a
whirlpool bath. He left the healthy baby under water for an hour. The
otherwise normal healthy infant drowned. Young claims that he
subsequently operated a clinician Mexico that treated cancer patients
with laetrile. Laetrile is a useless and dangerous drug that can harm
or kill people because it forms cyanide in the body. It is illegal,
and it is something of which Young should be ashamed, rather than
proud. From Mexico, Young moved to California and opened a clinic
offering supposed treatments for cancer and other illnesses. He
claimed falsely at that time to be an M.D. He was arrested in
California in 1988 for a variety of charges related to the sale of
ineffective and worthless medical treatments.
Young
then returned to the Spokane area. He was arrested on January 10,
1994 for assaulting several family members with an axe. This behavior
is from a man who claims to be deeply religious and spiritual. And
what about Young’s claims to be an N.D., or naturopathic doctor?
They are false. His “degree” is a worthless
piece
of paper purchased from a notorious diploma mill called Bernadean
University. With this worthless credential, Young has NEVER been
licensed to practice naturopathy in Utah or any place else.
PART
4 – YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS
In
1992 Young, with his third wife Mary Billeter Young, started his
current multilevel marketing company Young Living Essential Oils
(YLEO), in Utah. This company makes inflated claims for their
products, and encourages some unfair business practices. A few
examples follow. Young Living claims that their oils are purer than
those of their competitors. According to the archives of the IDMA
discussion list, (posted by Graham Sorensen on a Web page called The
YL Files, an expert with a gas chromatography actually analyzed one
Young Living oil. The findings in fact showed the presence of a
carrier oil not indicated on the label, and the presence of an
artificial chemical fragrance. The Young Living organization
responded by accusing the distributor who had sold the oil of product
tampering and subterfuge. Young Living never offered any additional
samples for independent laboratory testing.
Many
YLEO product descriptions are misleading, and imply health benefits
where none exist. The FDA has cited company has several times for
misleading labeling.Company sales leaders promote a variety of
dubious marketing techniques. One former distributor told me that she
was persuaded to purchase a Web site designed by her sponsor’s
husband. She received a number of visitors to her web site, yet she
never received any e-mails or orders for products. As the former
distributor learned more about using the Internet, she discovered
that her Web site was designed to be invisible, hidden from search
engines. When potential customers she had recruited through her own
hard work placed orders or sent e-mail, the orders and e-mail went
directly to the sponsor! The sponsor was not merely earning a
percentage of her sales; she was taking all the customers.
PART
5 – THE YOUNG LIFE RESEARCH CLINIC
Despite
Young’s lack of education and criminal back ground, YLEO
distributors continue to support him with cult-like devotion. Young
himself appears to want to promote his own ideas about “healing.”
To that end, in October 2000 he opened the pompously named Young Life
Research Clinic Institute of Natural Medicine in Springville,Utah.
Because Young has no license, he cannot legally examine, diagnose, or
treat patients himself. He hired licensed doctors to operate the
clinic. The medical directories pediatrician Sherman Johnson,
M.D.What sort of doctor would want to work for an unlicensed,
uneducated man with a criminal history whose writings reveal an utter
lack of intellectual ability? I explored Dr. Johnson’s background.
In short, Johnson pled guilty to manslaughter after injecting his
patient, a long time girlfriend, with a lethal overdose of narcotics.
He
falsified her death certificate to cover up his crime. The wrong
doing was discovered when a suspicious nurse demanded an
investigation and the body was exhumed. The entire story is so
entirely bizarre that I suggest the reader check the longer account
in my Quack watch article This clinic operates on a cash only basis.
This enables them to avoid regulatory scrutiny from health insurers
and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMA). For
example, they can blatantly perform laboratory tests without proper
certification because they are immune from CMA fines. The FBI, who is
supposed to enforce such laws, is busy with more pressing matters.
Prospective patients must pay $349 to register at the clinic, and are
then advised to receive a week of treatment costing $2000 to $3000
dollars. The patient must also sign a form stating that he or she is
not a member of the press or of any regulatory agency. In addition,
patients payout of pocket expenses for food, travel, and lodging.
Treatment
at the Young Life Research Clinic includes large quantities of
essential oils and nutritional supplements sold only by YLEO.
According to one case history presented at the June 2002 Young Living
Grand Convention, a “suggested patient supplementation program”
prepared for a woman being treated for breast cancer advised her to
take 14 different supplements, totaling more than 65 doses of Young
Living products, every day.
PART
6 – RAINDROP THERAPY
Young’s
invention, Raindrop Therapy, (RDT) is recommended at the clinic and
by thousands of YLEO distributors. In RDT, essential oils are dropped
in potentially unsafe concentrations onto a subject’s feet and
back. An excellent paper by K. Barber and J. Gagnon-Warr, White Paper
on Young Living Oil’s Raindrop Technique describes in great detail
why this technique is potentially unsafe and does not represent the
best use of essential oils.
PART
7 –SUMMARY
In
summary, Gary Young is a man who is uneducated and who has repeatedly
falsified and exaggerated his credentials. He has been arrested at
least twice for health fraud related charges. His inability to
recognize his lack of training and the limits of his skills
contributed to his own baby’s death. He purports to be a religious
and god-fearing man, yet he assaulted his own family. His writings
reveal a complete and utter lack of knowledge about even basic
science, let alone a subject as complex as essential oils. A
physician who played guilty to manslaughter in the death of a
longtime friend, falsified her death certificate, and attempted to
cover up the crime heads his clinic.
Gary
Young, Young Living Essential Oils, and the Young Life Research
Clinic have no relationship to real legitimate aromatherapy. The wise
consumer can purchase essential oils from a host of other suppliers
who sell quality products without resorting to inflated claims or
dubious marketing techniques. And people with medical problems can
find honest ethical health care providers elsewhere, most likely
closer to home and at less cost.. Don’t be misled by the hype. The
clinic has NO miracle cures or treatments.
Author
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